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Topic: Get rich with.. Craigslist (Read 12198 times)

I have a small handful of random possessions that I'd like to sell. I've posted them on Craigslist, Used, a couple times, but none have sold. I'm wondering how to tell if items are actually just straight up valueless, or if there is a market that I'm not reaching. I'm pricing all the items in the 5-15$ range and putting "OBO" up. Have any mustachians had any luck with Amazon or Ebay?

Craigslist is the best deal for a seller, because there are no listing or sale fees. The downside is that your potential market is limited to people nearby. Unless you live in a large urban area, eBay and Amazon are going to be bigger markets for selling, but they also take a rather large percentage of the sale price. It's a tradeoff.

I guess one of my questions is, if I'm selling a low valued item (5-15$) and someone far away buys it, and it turns out it costs me 15$ to ship it, do I lose money? I see Ebay adds on shipping fees --- are they always accurate? How are they calculated? I'm trying to read their site and not having much luck.

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Dimitri

Not to be sarcastic but why are you wasting your time trying to move 10-12 $5-15 items that have not managed to garner interest on Craigslist a couple of times. You've already invested time in selling them and nobody has wanted to buy them. Yes, you could list them on eBay to attract a larger audience, pay listing fees (even if they don't sell), final value fees, PayPal fees, deal with packaging them, and posting them. And how much time would that take you and what would you net? I would just donate them to your favorite charity and call it a day.

Try selling things in lots. Like put all those electronics and things up in one listing and say something like "$50 for all" (or something slightly less than you were trying to sell them for individually). Less transactions, everything gets sold (hopefully), and the buyer might feel like they're getting a "deal" by getting all that stuff for only $X.

That said, I haven't had a ton of luck either. For instance, I have a floor length angora peacoat that I've been trying to sell lately but no matter how low I go, no takers. It's a really nice coat, but not a "brand name", so I can't get any views.

BTW, shipping on ebay you can charge a flat-rate or real rate (like USPS, UPS, FedEx, based on weight or size, which it calculates for you) depending on what you prefer. Offering free shipping usually gets more views, but then you have to factor that into the price.

I've cleared out a good chunk of my garage over the last couple years with Craigslist. Before I post something, I look it up on Amazon or somewhere else to find the market value for it brand new and then advertise it for about 50% of that. That might not be the optimum price to sell it, but it makes me money I wouldn't otherwise have and it clears inventory. I also limit myself to items that will net me at least $15 including travel costs (two weeks ago I had to deliver a $20 item which cost me half a gallon of gas).

lise

I use both eBay and Craigslist. Craigslist for larger items like bikes, furniture, luggage that can be picked up in person.I use eBay for shippable items. Your items seem better suited to eBay where you'll cast a wider net of buyers.

Yes, eBay shipping fees are perfectly accurate assuming you input the correct weight for your item when you list it. If you get into online selling, you should have a cheap scale that reads to the nearest ounce, at least. I use our kitchen scale and it's precise to the nearest 1/10 ounce and confirmed accurate vs. the scale at the USPS self-serve kiosk. Also, you get a nice discount if you purchase the shipping through eBay (17%). I hope Canada Post is the same way. Print to a regular printer on white paper and use clear tape to affix it to the package. You should never lose money on shipping.

For the items you described, eBay would be a perfect venue for them, assuming they're under 5-6 pounds in weight. Beyond that, and the shipping charges start to be too much for the buyer (at least using USPS prices, not sure how Canadian post works).

I have sold items on CL, eBay and Amazon. I much prefer CL because it is in person, you get paid cash immediately, and there is no packaging or shipping cost. I don't have a business of selling stuff, this is just cleaning out my house.

I have sold for over $20,000 on CL. My cut-off is $20. if an item is worth less than that, I offer it on Freecycle for free. I am guessing that you may want to try a garage sale for really small stuff like you have.

Shipping is a real hassle. I only use Amazon for items that are not too big and heavy, and where I have the original box so packaging is easy. Books are ideal for Amazon.

I have also learned that some items just don't sell on a certain sites. For instance, books don't seem to move on CL. They sell easily on Amazon.

Finally, I learned a lot from this little book: "From Trash to Cash: Sell Your Junk on eBay, Craigslist and Gumtree with this proven guide." Sadly, I saw that it is no longer available. There definitely are tricks to help you sell better.

Another option to sell items would be through a local "yard sale" type of group on Facebook. Example: "St. Louis area yard sale". These groups have many posts of items for sale and have a lot of activity. Generally people comment and jump on items right away if they have the slightest interest in them to get a deal done so that another person doesn't come along with a better offer. The downside to these groups is the drama that can be created over people not showing to pick something up etc. as you would imagine.

Craigslist is the best online classified sites to sell your products online.

Sell? No.

Get an endless stream of people who won't show up, don't bring the agreed on amount ("But I'll make payments, I'm good for it, I swear!"), want to return it after a few days, and are generally absolute pains in the asses? Yeah.

eBay, or just give the cheap stuff away for free on your local freebie group.

We have had great success on Craigslist but like others if its not 25$ or more we don't bother and I prefer 50$ or more. I also agree its for bigger items and that if you have a few items in the same category clump them together. Other than that it just means getting to the right price and being patient. I have posted stuff had no hits, taken it down for a week posted for ten dollars less and had 4 or 5.

Odd, I have had fantastic luck with Craigslist over the years, although I will say it was better when it first started than it is today. I have never had someone not show up and I have found lots of good stuff for my home. A lot of my furniture is from Craigslist. I think you have to get a head for what things go for in your area, and you have to be discerning. For example, never buy anything that doesn't have a good well lit picture.

Those are all items I'd sell on eBay, if at all. I came here because the subject attracted me, and I have an anecdote to share. While I was building a home gym, a friend saw a post on Facebook where a guy was selling a whole gym for $1500. I ended up buying the lot for $1400 - delivered! (I did help load and unload.) And I turned around and sold most of the weights on Craigslist for about $3000.

For higher value items that aren't bad to ship, I use eBay, and I usually calculate shipping myself, usually using USPS, and then adding a nice round number on my eBay listing (i.e. $5.99 to cover my $5-7 shipping costs). I look up how much those items recently sold for on eBay (see Completed Listings), and price them a little lower to get them to sell easily. Obviously, the point here isn't to "get rich." It's to recoup a little bit of value for items that are providing no value to you, but somebody else wants.